Ways to celebrate IPA Day


Alright, I'll admit it. I'm not a fan of  IPA Day. To me, it comes across as little more than a thinly veiled personal marketing effort by a self-branded beer celebrity who enjoys touting her social media statistics and feeling important. That being said, I certainly can't knock the celebration of beer in general, so for those that DO choose to raise a tulip (or one of those newfangled Spiegelau buttplug glasses) today to toast the IPA, here are a few additional ways to pay homage without using a hashtag and padding someone's social metrics for their resume.


Learn

Surely the road that will be less traveled during the celebration of IPA Day, I suggest taking a moment today to read up on the style and what makes the plethora of IPAs out there different from one another. Here are a couple suggestions of learning materials to check out:

Thought you knew where the IPA came from? You might not know as much as you think. Mythbusting the IPA from All About Beer gives some great insight into the IPA stories and false histories that get passed from bar to bar, drinker to drinker.

What's an IPA without hops? There are lots of guides out there that attempt to explain differences between hop varieties, but I really enjoy the one on Beer Legends, which provides a dedicated page to each variety, outlining its history, aroma, usage, bitterness and much more.

If you're a brewer, have you ever thought about growing your own hops? Here's a video from Brew Your Own magazine with some tips, and for those that are space constrained or in apartments, here's an interesting post from New School Beer explaining how you can still create your own hop harvest.

Buy

If you prefer Cyber Monday over Black Friday and are the type of person who embraces arbitrary sales on holidays like Columbus Day, then you might appreciate that some online retailers are offering discounts on beer-related items today. I'm also keeping an eye out for any local businesses that are offering up IPA Day deals, and will update if I see any.

Over at Craft Geer, you can get 8% off any non-sale apparel purchase using coupon code IPADAY8.

On More Beer, all IPA ingredient kits are 10% off with coupon code IPADAY13. Good today only.

Brew Heads is another site with some cool beer apparel and glassware, and today only, they have a big sale going on with some items over 60% off.


Check In

If you're one of those badge whores (guilty as charged), you'll be psyched to know that Untappd is offering up TWO IPA Day badges you can earn today. First is the standard IPA Day badge, which just requires you to check in to any IPA. The second is an IPA Day: Saucer Style badge. To unlock this one, you'll need to head down to Flying Saucer Kansas City and check in to any IPA with the Saucer added as your location. Boom, badges galore, and no hashtag is required for either.

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